You ask me where to begin?

I have decided to share my latest plans for a piece of writing. In fact, it is a little further than plans, it is a ‘work in progress’

During the lockdown I started to write a play.

Having made a start I realised that this was not an easy task.

So, I am 6000 words in, have 32 pages of dialogue and I have the start of an outline of a story bubbling away.

I won’t share the storyline yet with you, but I’ll share what influenced me to start writing it.

At the end of March 2020, I was unwell. Not Covid 19 unwell but just unwell enough to be off work for two weeks. During one of my lucid moments I was watching the Boris Johnson speech on tv when he sent the UK into lockdown.

As something to take my mind off my impending doom, I started to listen to some of the music from my Spotify account. There was a “go to song” that I liked from the early 1980’s which I suddenly had in my head (earworm) which I usually feel offers hope. It also has a quasi-religious element to it, but I won’t dwell on that.

As I started to listen, I realised that it could conversely be about death and having an end point, the hope for a good afterlife. There will be redemption after various trials and tribulations are overcome.

For me, the song seemed to provide some bones to hang a story from.

I found myself visualising scenes in life (not mine) that could be put together. I could see vanquishing evil and worked out that the evil doer was going to meet their comeuppance. There would be a gnashing of teeth and all sorts of biblical revenge.

After I calmed myself down a bit, I decided that my lead character would be stuck in the lockdown and would meet with this revenge.

The worry was that I also had in my head “it’s a wonderful life” and that didn’t seem very vengeful at all.

Somehow the song by Jon and Vangelis brought these thoughts out.

Anyway a few lines.

“You ask me where to begin, am I so lost in my sin, somehow, I’ll find my way home” seemed to embody these thoughts.

Anyway, thank you for indulging my initial ramblings and I hope that my play will progress further.